fox_up_north

Unsure whether he goes this window. Can't see anyone desperate enough to take the plunge and he wouldn't be a punt for some club. If we lose him mid season, coupled with points deduction above 6 and we're definitely looking at double drop to League One. It's whether we hypothetically take £30 million now and risk the drop or £20 million in summer having finished 20th after deduction.

We're now in the most deadly phase of running - slippery and icy all over the place. Even walking the other day had me being tentative. Treadmill it is!

Hahaha smashed it

Does this mean we're due a run of good ones?

That is so undeserved

Christ this is dreadful. Not seeing the prem for a while.

Genuinely can't remember the last time commentators had to apologise so much for the language

WBA fans sticking the boot in

Absolutely been coming. After the goal it's just been a dreadful lull with crap passes and no pace

Yes. More of that.

His press conference screamed "sack me". They should hold a press conference where they draw the next manager out of the hat. The draw will be done by a hammered Rod Stewart.

Bottom 3 look all but confirmed

Genuinely looks like a different team to the first half. Amazing work from Rohl.

China are kind of two faced on green. Yes, they put a load of money into it but they're still happy to bang out emissions making tat. Tat we buy, tbh.

Nancy knows he's done

I know we protested the big clubs joining a super league before but I changed my mind. Can the US and Russia just sod off to another planet? It's really not helpful

Given that we're never going to be a "top 6" club, any team that does well for a bit have to juggle the inevitable cycle. Do well, keep it up as long as you can, lose players, try not to drop too far. Brighton have bounced between 11th and 6th. They're generally considered the best run club that's not absolutely quids in. We're edging closer and closer to the required 14 clubs to make changes being American, all of whom have demonstrated some desire to change the format of the English Premier League. It would not be unrealistic to foresee a situation where... let's say 6 clubs all choose to have a "mandatory playoff position" style place, while the other 14 fight it out to avoid relegation and have a shot at at the FA or EFL cups.

That sums it up brilliantly. The 1/92 is never happening again, for anyone like us. Even if Villa achieved it, their starting point is much better. We basically went 25, 14, 1. Given everything that came after, you would understand a hovering of anywhere between 8-14 being reasonable - given some of the actions we saw taken by league organisers, etc. But to essentially fall through a trapdoor, which we made ourselves and then repeat the process after climbing out of the dungeon...is ridiculous. If Top had real nous, he'd have sold off a portion of Premier League & FA Cup winners Leicester City to squirrel some cash away.

He was nailed on for Man City, really. Feels like the Chelsea job was always a stop gap to get ready.b

I live in the north. I've seen Bury, Wednesday and Blackburn's ownerships impact on fans. Not saying I don't agree but my word it can be bad. My preference would be Top accepts the issues and tries to make changes. Whether that's realistic, I don't know but clearly something has rattled the upper echelons more this year. Anyone who takes over, in my view, should have a plan and not be some dodgy oil state or Ratcliffe type. We laugh at them but the Wrexham owners are probably closer to what you want, than Newcastle.

Don't get your hopes up. I remember Lookman. I can see him finishing the loan and then being sold to a lower Prem club.

Oh good. He smacked of desperate deadline day signing.

No way we keep James unless he absolutely loves being here and pushes for it.

Absolutely ridiculous that we are still within sight (before deduction) of play offs. I think the aim should be to get to around 55 points, to account for what I think will either be 6 or 9 point deduction. Considering we're on 37.5% win rate, that should be very doable. Based on current percentages of draws/ wins - we should be around 60 points by the end of the season. Historically - 12th.

He's got no future has he? Bless him. Career's done.